


Get it Together, Kuroo

by mozaikmage



Category: Haikyuu!!, 月刊少女野崎くん | Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
Genre: BL manga, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, GSNK AU, GSNK fusion, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun fusion, Humor, M/M, mangaka kenma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 17:38:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12215631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mozaikmage/pseuds/mozaikmage
Summary: Kuroo Tetsurou is a calm, confident, cool guy. Or at least, that’s what he tells himself every morning in front of the bathroom mirror as he tries to tame his hair. So, when he realizes he has a crush on second-year student Kozume Kenma, he does the calm, cool, confident thing and confesses. Or, tries to.(it's GSNK but kenma is nozaki-kun and kuroo is sakura)





	Get it Together, Kuroo

**Author's Note:**

> Me: GSNK AU WITH KENMA AS NOZAKI-KUN  
> [ CO32minus ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CO32minus): pl e ase  
> and then I wrote this in 2 days enjoy

Kuroo Tetsurou is a calm, confident, cool guy. Or at least, that’s what he tells himself every morning in front of the bathroom mirror as he tries to tame his hair. So, when he realizes he has a crush on second-year student Kozume Kenma, he does the calm, cool, confident thing and confesses. Or, tries to.

He catches Kozume after the last bell, and says, “Kozume-kun, can I talk to you for a second?”

Kozume gives him a sidelong glance and then nods, so they walk to a quiet hallway notorious for being the site of many a love confession. That’s when Kuroo fucks up.

Somewhere along the line between his brain and his mouth, the phrase “I like you, please accept my feelings,” morphs into “I...I am your fan!”

Kuroo bows, mostly to hide how absolutely tomato-red his face is now.

For a long, horrible moment, nothing happens.

Kozume blinks, slowly, like a cat. Then he picks up his backpack and starts digging through it.  _ What is he going to do, oh my god,  _ Kuroo thinks.  _ Oh my god oh my god oh my god. _

“Here you go,” Kozume says, and gives Kuroo...a piece of paper, with what appeared to be his autograph on it. 

_ What the fuck,  _ Kuroo thinks. “It’s...this isn’t what I meant when I said I’m your fan,” he says, and laughs nervously.

Kozume is still looking at him, and then says, “Okay then, do you want to come to my house now? You don’t have any after-school activities, do you?”

“Uh, no, I don’t have anything after school today. I’m in the volleyball club, but practice is over for the year, so...” That’s moving kind of fast, but okay. Kuroo was not expecting to get this far, if he was being perfectly honest. The chances of Kozume Kenma being interested in him weren’t very high to begin with. He’ll take it.

Kozume lives in an apartment fairly close to the school, apparently by himself. Kuroo takes off his shoes and backpack, and Kenma gives him a piece of paper and says, “Fill in everything marked with an X in black. Try to stay inside the lines.”

Okay. Kuroo can do that. He plays volleyball, he has steady hands. He might jump off a bridge if Kozume asked him to, in that quiet, soft voice of his. Painting in the blacks turns out to be absorbing work, and Kuroo barely looks up when Kozume hands him another page, and then another, and at some point a mug of tea.

“Thanks for your help today,” Kozume says eventually. “I can meet my deadline now. You should probably head home soon, it’s pretty late.”

“You’re a mangaka, Kozume-kun? Like, an actual professional mangaka?” Kuroo can’t believe it.

Kozume gives him a flat look. “You did beta for four hours straight and didn’t put it together? And please, just call me Kenma.”

Kenma. It’s a nice name. “It’s my professional name, too,” He adds a second later, and Kuroo realizes that being on a first name basis with Kenma does not make him very special.

When he goes home, he googles Kenma-sensei’s manga. KENMA-sensei, all caps, is the author of popular monthly boy’s love series “Get it Together, Mizuki,” about a boy who keeps trying and failing to confess to his crush or otherwise get closer to him. Kuroo’s sister has the first two tankobons, so he steals them from her room, and then goes out and buys the rest of the series. It’s  _ hilarious.  _ Kuroo almost can’t believe the quiet, shy-looking boy with bleached hair is capable of such dry jokes. The art is a little more retro and cartoony than most shiny and pretty BL art, but it’s cute. Kuroo wonders if any of the characters are based on real people. If Mizuki-kun is inspired by Kenma himself. He kind of hopes not, because watching Kenma pine after some boy who is nothing like Kuroo in any way would be far too much for his gay heart. At least Kenma’s not straight. 

 

“So how did it go?” Kuroo’s best friend Bokuto asks him in class the next day. 

Kuroo slams his head down on the desk. “I don’t even know where to start.”

 

It somehow becomes routine: Kuroo going over to Kenma’s apartment after school and doing the beta for this month’s chapter of his manga. It’s nothing short of amazing, getting to watch Kenma work, eat the food Kenma cooks, hear the occasional word of praise for his inking skills. After a few weeks of this, Kuroo comes in and finds himself face-to-face with two other boys in their school uniform-- one freakishly tall with silver hair and wide green eyes, one short and light-haired and angry about something. The short one Kuroo knows, sort of. Yaku Morisuke, Drama Club president. They were in the same class in first year. He’s currently lecturing the tall kid about two-point perspective. Kenma is sitting in the corner, storyboarding the next chapter, looking accustomed to the presence of the other two.

“Yakkun! I didn’t know you knew Kenma,” Kuroo says. Yaku startles and looks Kuroo up and down, as if noticing his presence for the first time.

“Kuroo,” Yaku says, nodding. “I do the backgrounds here. This idiot is Haiba Lev, he’s a first year. He draws the special effects and sometimes screentones. He’s forcing me to teach him how to actually draw, but I have severe doubts about that ever happening.” Kenma snorts quietly from his corner. Lev bows.

“Sup. I’m Kuroo Tetsurou, I do the inks. I just started a few weeks ago.” 

“I’ve been doing this since the start of the school year, so that makes me your senpai!” Lev yells, and Yaku smacks him.

Kuroo laughs. “I’m like, two years older than you, Haiba-kun, I’m not calling you senpai.”

“Don’t call him senpai, his ego’s big enough as it is,” Yaku says. Kenma snorts again.

They settle around the low table in a sort of assembly line, Yaku putting in the backgrounds, then Kuroo inking, then Lev adding the finishing touches. Then Yaku staring at the finished product for five minutes trying to find fault with Lev’s contribution to the page.

Yaku and Lev leave earlier than Kuroo does, because Kuroo is weak and will take any excuse to spend as much time as possible with Kenma. 

“Hey Kenma,” he asks, “in your manga, are Watanabe and Matsuzaki based on Lev and Yakkun?”

Kenma looks up from his sketchbook, and cracks a tiny smile.  For Kuroo, the hours and hours of filling in black all become worth it in that single instant. “They don’t know that.”

Kuroo cackles, flopping backwards onto the floor. “That’s hilarious. This is the best news I’ve ever heard.”

“They say you’re supposed to write what you know, so...” Kenma shrugs.

“Is that why you draw shonen ai then?” Kuroo asks, sitting up again and watching Kenma’s face. 

Kenma’s expression doesn’t change. “High school stories are easy when you’re in high school, and I like to draw pretty boys, so.” He pulls his sketchbook up closer to his face. “Not that I have any romantic experience to draw from whatsoever.”

“Am I a pretty boy?” Kenma flushes and hides behind his sketchbook completely, and Kuroo grins. He moves closer. “Can you draw me, Kenma-sensei?”

“No. Go away,” Kenma says, but his voice wavers a little as he does so. Kuroo falls to the ground as if shot.

“I’m wounded. Devastated. Kenma doesn’t think I’m pretty.” He raises his head a little to see Kenma roll his eyes, but Kuroo thinks he sees a hint of a smile on the blond boy’s face.

“It’s almost ten o’clock, Kuro. We have school tomorrow. Go  _ home. _ ”

 

“You’ve been spending more time with Kozume lately, haven’t you?” Bokuto asks Kuroo at lunch one day. They’re sitting in the back of the classroom, Bokuto attempting to convince Akaashi to come and eat with them via text.

Kuroo beams. “Yeah, I have! It’s great, I help him with his...part-time job,” Kuroo says, remembering that Kenma doesn’t want the whole “BL mangaka” thing spread around all over the school. “And sometimes he makes dinner, and sometimes we play video games...” Mostly dating sims for research purposes, but also fantasy fighting games because Kenma likes them. Kenma always wins. The dating sims he wins and then stays up all night drawing fifty-page doujins starring the protagonist and his best friend.

“That’s adorable, bro.” They eat in silence for a while.

“...I don’t think he likes me back,” Kuroo says finally. Saying it out loud was painful, but that’s what it seemed like. Kenma is smart and observant as hell, there’s no way he wouldn’t notice the galaxy-sized crush Kuroo had if he was looking for it. “If he liked me, he’d do something about it, right?”

“I don’t know Kozume, like, at all, but he always seemed pretty shy to me, so I don’t think he’d be the type to confess first,” Bokuto says, picking up a piece of meat with his chopsticks. “It might be worth it to just try again. Maybe now that you’re comfortable around him you won’t fuck it up as bad.”

Kuroo glares at his friend. “How did you confess to Akaashi, again?  _ Oh wait, you still haven’t.  _ The school year’s almost over and yet, here you are, still locked in a mobius strip of mutual pining.”

“I don’t even know what a mobius strip  _ is _ !”

“What are you two idiots talking about?” Akaashi interrupts, pulling a chair up next to Bokuto and taking out his bento.

Kuroo smirks.“You know, I just remembered, I have to go do something, bye,” he says, and leaves his friends to their mutual pining.

 

“My editor wants me to introduce another side pairing soon, so I’m going to have to go people watching,” Kenma mentions a few days later. It’s him and Kuroo and Yaku this time, Yaku sketching buildings on the floor, Kenma drawing in characters, and Kuroo filling in blacks. Until Kenma mentioned the people watching, the only sound in the room was the scratching of pens on paper. By now, it feels comfortable and familiar.

Kuroo jumps up and nearly knocks over his ink bottle. “I have the perfect inspiration for you,” he says. “Eat lunch with me tomorrow and you’ll see what I mean.”

Kenma sighs. He only eats lunch around people when he needs new characters for his manga. In a perfect world, Kenma would eat his lunch alone, in silence, while playing a video game. Usually on school days he hides in strange corners of hallways, or goes on the roof when the weather’s too miserable for everyone else.

“Hey, that reminds me, what’s your editor like? I still haven’t met them.”

Kenma immediately perks up, the annoyance of meeting new people forgotten. “Iwaizumi-san is fantastic and every day I am grateful for his presence in my life.”

Kuroo stares. “This is the most positive I’ve ever heard you talk about a living human being.”

Yaku snorts. “That’s because his previous editor, Oikawa-san, was an absolute nightmare.”

“What was wrong with him?”

Kenma stops drawing for a second and hisses, “He  _ likes aliens _ .” As though liking aliens is equivalent to being a serial killer.

“...What’s wrong with aliens?”

“He wanted them in  _ every chapter.  _ He thought aliens would be cute mascot characters for  _ Mizuki _ .” Kenma picks up the latest issue of the magazine  _ Mizuki _ runs in, and flips to a story near the middle. “This is one of the comics he’s in charge of now, look at it. Count the freaking aliens.”

Kuroo flips through the chapter and counts the aliens. There are seven aliens in a twenty-two page chapter. The story is supposed to be set in Victorian times. “Wow.”

“Yachi-sensei isn’t very assertive, so she has a hard time saying no to Oikawa-san’s suggestions. I’ve tried to help her, but there’s only so much you can do against Oikawa-san.” Kenma glares at the aliens interrupting a dramatic confession scene between one Victorian gentleman and another.

“He also had this weird thing where every plot suggestion seemed to be based on his personal life,” Kenma adds. “So I just told him I had my plot figured out very far in advance, so I would rather not make drastic changes based on whether or not Iwaizumi-san smiled at him this week.”

Kenma looks into the distance for a moment. “I am so, so grateful Iwaizumi-san is my editor now.”

Yaku pats Kenma on the shoulder. “You and me both, kiddo.”

 

“Bokuto, Akaashi, this is Kozume Kenma!” Kuroo sticks his arms out like he’s presenting a prize on a game show, and Kenma glares at him, embarrassed.

Bokuto hoots, because that is what Bokuto does, and Akaashi elbows him and says “Pleasure to meet you, Kozume-kun,” because that is what Akaashi does.

“Please just call me Kenma.”

“You can call me Keiji then,” Akaashi says, tilting his head ever so slightly.

Kenma eats his lunch quickly and pulls out a pen and a small notebook. “So, how did you all meet and become friends?” He says, voice going for casual but sounding like an interviewer for a job of some sort. The job of friend, perhaps.

Bokuto beams. “Volleyball! We’re all on the volleyball team! Well, Kuroo and I are done, because we’re third years and we have to study for exams and things, but Akaashi’s the captain now. I convinced Akaashi to join last year, and it’s been a blast since then!”

“Yes. Studying for exams is definitely what I have been doing since dropping volleyball,” Kuroo says, thinking of all the evenings spent inking instead of preparing for college entrance exams. Maybe becoming Kenma’s unpaid manga assistant was not the best course of action for Kuroo’s future. Hm.

Kenma looks a little guilty, probably realizing the same thing as Kuroo, and Kuroo smiles at him because it’s not Kenma’s fault that Kuroo is gay and bad at confessing. Kenma looks away, cheeks slightly pinker, and clears his throat. 

“Akaashi, you seem like a sensible person. Why do you hang out with these two?”

Kuroo gasps, but really he and Bokuto are both used to it. Everyone wonders at first.

Akaashi sighs. “They grow on you,” he says. “Like fungus.”

Kenma laughs a little at that, which is the best sound Kuroo has ever heard. 

“I’m not a fungus, I am an extremely kind and entertaining person,” Bokuto declares. Akaashi hums, not agreeing or disagreeing. 

Lunch continues along these lines. Bokuto tries to invite Kuroo and Kenma to an arcade for a double not-date on the weekend, but Kenma says he has plans.

After school that day, Kenma asks Kuroo if he regrets spending so much time being Kenma’s assistant.

“What? No, of course not. I like spending time with you.” He can worry about entrance exams later, he thinks. Never mind that later is getting closer and closer.

“I can teach Lev how to do beta so you can study,” Kenma says. He’s not looking at Kuroo.

“If you do that, can I still come over?” Kuroo asks. 

Kenma nods.

 

In the next chapter of  _ Get it Together, Mizuki _ , a new transfer student appears. His name is Shiroi-kun and he has messy black hair and an obnoxious personality Mizuki-kun is strangely drawn to.

Kuroo cuts Shiroi’s introduction page out of the monthly magazine and tapes it up next to his desk at home. “I thought you said I wasn’t pretty,” he tells Kenma, smirking, and Kenma flushes and rolls his eyes.

“Your personality worked for what I needed that chapter,” Kenma says. “Anyway, can you finish the beta for the new chapter by tonight?”

“Put more Shiroi-kun in the next chapter and it shall be done.”

Kuroo quickly regrets this demand because it turns out Shiroi-kun’s hair is annoying to fill in, especially if you’re doing it panel after panel. It has a lot of spikes in it.

“Why is Shiroi’s hair...like that?” Kuroo asks, swearing as a flick of ink gets onto the wrong part of the page. He fixes the mistake quickly.

“Kuro, why is your hair the way it is?” Kenma asks. 

Kuroo gasps theatrically. “Kenma, that’s so rude, how could you.” He paints in another panel before finally saying, “It’s bedhead. I sleep weird and I don’t know how to fix it.”

Kenma doesn’t reply for a while, long enough that Kuroo wonders if the conversation’s over.  “I don’t hate it,” Kenma eventually says, very softly. “Your hair. I don’t hate it.”

Kuroo can feel himself blushing, so he concentrates on the inking.

 

“Why doesn’t Mizuki-kun ever get the boy?” Kuroo asks at some point.

“Because then the story will be over, and I’d have to come up with something new, and that takes effort. He’s not allowed to make progress in his relationship until my editor tells me to.”

“Couldn’t you just keep the story going after he gets into a relationship?”  
Kenma flips a page in his sketchbook and scribbles something. “Most of the humor comes from the fact that he can’t figure out how to communicate his feelings, so him being in a relationship would mess that up.”

“I guess that makes sense.” They work in silence for a bit.

“Hey, Kenma? Do your parents know you make manga?”

Kenma makes an irritated sound. “They didn’t believe me when I told them. They think I have a part-time job at a convenience store or something and that’s how I’m paying for this apartment.” He picks up a blank sheet of paper and starts sketching in the roughs.  “I don’t think I want them to know I draw BL, though.”

“Did you tell them you’re gay?” Kuroo asks. He had told his mom, back in his first year of high school, and she was okay with it. His sister’s okay with it too, fujoshi that she is.

Kenma makes that irritated sound again. “They didn’t believe me about that either.”

Kuroo puts his brush down and looks at Kenma sideways. “Do your parents...actually think you’re straight? Because, no offense, but you do not look straight.”

Kenma pinches the bridge of his nose. “No, they couldn’t believe that I would be interested in anyone of any gender.”

Kuroo laughs.

 

One day, Kenma invites Kuroo to go to the art supply store with him. “I feel more comfortable around people I know,” Kenma explains. “And I need more paper.”

“You’re inviting me because you know I’ll carry everything you buy,” Kuroo says, grinning. “It’s okay to admit it!”

Kenma rolls his eyes. 

They’re leaving the subway station when an unfamiliar voice shouts “K-Kenma-sensei!” and makes them both jump. Kenma hides behind Kuroo like a toddler hiding behind his mother.

A high school girl in a school uniform approaches them, holding the latest  _ Get it Together, Mizuki _ tankobon. “Y-you’re Kenma-sensei, right?” she says, looking around Kuroo.

Kenma nods slowly.

“Can you sign my book, please?” The girl asks, bowing deeply. “I’m a huge fan of your work!”

Kenma sighs and pulls a pen out of his pocket. “Who should I make it out to?” He drawls, scribbling on the inside cover.

“Chie! Thank you so much, oh my god!” The girl bows a few more times for good measure and runs off. Kenma grabs Kuroo’s hand and drags him in the opposite direction of the girl. Kuroo doesn’t even have time to appreciate the fact that Kenma is holding his hand because they’re walking so fast.

“How did she even recognize me?” Kenma mutters, as they make their way to the art supply store. “I draw myself as a blob with cat ears and a face.”

Kuroo laughs. “You have no idea, do you? Your blob self-portrait’s face looks exactly like you. Literally, that is what your face looks like.”

Kenma scowls. “Still.” They get to the store and Kuroo holds the door open for Kenma, waving him in like a Western-style butler.

“Remember when we first met and you gave me your autograph? You didn’t freak out then. Why?”

Kenma doesn’t answer for a while, examining the pens at the register. “That was different,” he says eventually.

And Kuroo thinks,  _ maybe I have a chance after all _ .

Kenma is storyboarding the first chapter of a new storyline when he asks the question that is Kuroo’s undoing. 

“The school trip arc is over, so I’m going to have Mizuki mess up his confession again,” Kenma says. “I’m just not sure how.”

“Will you ever give that kid a break?” Kuroo says, and Kenma sticks his tongue out at him.

“Have you ever confessed to someone?”

Kuroo laughs, bitterly. “Yeah.”

Kenma looks up from his sketchbook, and flips to a clean page. He clicks his pencil. “How did it go?”

Kuroo laughs again. Irony is a bitch sometimes. “Not very well.”

Kenma gets up from his chair in the corner and sits down next to Kuroo. Kenma’s more comfortable being in Kuroo’s personal space lately, and Kuroo is grateful for it every single day. “Tell me everything and don’t leave out a single detail.”

“He misunderstood my confession,” Kuroo explains, and Kenma tilts his head to one side in confusion.

Kuroo looks at the ceiling, sighs deeply, and thinks, fuck it. “Instead of saying ‘I like you please accept my feelings’ like a normal person, I said ‘I’m your fan,’ and ended up becoming his manga assistant.” Kuroo stares at the glass tabletop, afraid to look at Kenma right now. “Which was a terrible decision because at first it was just a crush, and I could have gotten over it, but now that I know he’s smart and funny and talented in addition to being super cute, I don’t think I can get over it easily.”  He looks up. Kenma is staring at him, wide-eyed, and Kuroo never wants to see that look on Kenma’s face ever again. “I understand if you don’t feel the same way. It’s just. It’s been long enough. I feel like you deserve to know.”

“Kuro,” Kenma says. “Can you just. Give me a few days.”

Kuroo nods. “Of course. Do you need me to finish these pages, or...?”

“It’s fine. Lev can do it.”

So Kuroo goes home.

 

Kenma doesn’t contact him for three days. Kuroo is true to his word, though, and doesn’t try to pester him about it or anything. He wants to, but he doesn’t. On day three, someone grabs Kuroo’s arm as he’s leaving his last class of the day. Kuroo looks down.

Kenma looks more determined than Kuroo’s ever seen him. “Kuro.”

“Kenma.”

He lets Kenma lead him to that one confession hallway where Kuroo accidentally ruined his life just a few short months ago. 

Kenma looks around. Pushes his hair back away from his face. Fidgets. Takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry I misunderstood your confession the first time,” he says, finally. “But I like you, so. If you want to date or whatever. That would be cool.” He’s blushing and not making eye contact as he’s talking, but he looks up now. “And I did teach Lev how to do beta, so you don’t need to worry about failing your entrance exams anymore. If you were worried about that. So. Yeah.”

Kenma puts a hand over his eyes and mutters, “I can’t believe this is what I make my characters feel like  _ all the time _ . I’m so mean. I should apologize to Mizuki-kun.”

Kuroo laughs, really laughs. “Can I kiss you, Kenma?”

“Please,” Kenma breathes, so Kuroo does.

**Author's Note:**

> Kenma's manga is inspired by Ganbare Nakamura-kun, which is hilarious and also the only BL I've read that seems like a thing Kenma could write. I've only read like 3 BL comics in my life tho so  
> number of times I listened to kimi ja nakya dame mitai while writing this: too fucking many  
> pls talk to me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/mashazart) or [tumblr](http://cubistemoji.tumblr.com/)


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